THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Vice President Gore has joined
me today to talk to you about what we're doing to reduce smoking,
especially by young people, and to protect Americans from the
potential threat of second-hand tobacco smoke.

Cigarette smoking is the most single, significant public health
problem facing our people today. Every year, more Americans die from
smoking-related diseases than from AIDS, car accidents, murders,
suicides and fires combined, taking a terrible human toll and putting
great financial burdens on our health care system and on businesses
all across America.

Last year, we took bold action to shield our children from
tobacco, telling the tobacco companies: market and sell your
products to adults if you wish, but you must draw the line at
children. And we launched a comprehensive plan that prohibits
retailers from selling tobacco to minors, and requires clerks to
check IDs before selling cigarettes to the young people. These
regulations are critical to our goal of keeping tobacco out of
our children's lives -- but they must be enforced. I requested
$34 million for enforcement in my 1998 budget, but Congress has
cut that funding.

I urge the Congress to do the right thing and restore the full
$34 million when they return in September. We need to do more to
cut off our children's access to tobacco -- and this is no time to
cut corners.

This week, I signed historic legislation that balances the
budget in a way that protects our values, invests in our people and
prepares us for the 21st century. Our balanced budget includes a
15-cents-a-pack cigarette tax to help states provide health care for
up to 5 million uninsured children, and helps to prevent many young
people from taking up smoking in the first place.

But we must do more to protect all Americans from the dangers
of smoking. One of the most important things we can do is to protect
those who don't use tobacco from the threat of second-hand smoke.
And I'd like to ask the Vice President to say just a few words about
what that threat means to our families and children.

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Mr. President.
Second-hand smoke isn't just unpleasant, it is a risk to the
public health. Our Environmental Protection Agency puts it in
the same category as asbestos, radon and benzene -- and those are
some of the most dangerous of all carcinogens.

A Surgeon General's report found that second-hand smoke
is a cause of disease among non-smokers, including the disease
of lung cancer. According to other studies, second-hand smoke
also increases children's risk of respiratory infections and
aggravates the symptoms of asthma.

The answer as to what to do is simple -- we've got to do more
to protect people from second-hand smoke in our public places and
clean up the air that all of us share.

One important place to start is in the American work place.
Lots of employers are now starting to realize that smoking hurts not
only those who smoke, it may well harm other workers. And it also
harms America's businesses through higher disease rates, higher health
care costs, greater absenteeism and lower productivity on the job.
That is why President Clinton has worked so hard to make federal
government work places smoke-free.

One of the first things he did when he took office in 1993 was
to ban smoking here in the White House. Since then, many of our
federal agencies have taken steps to protect their employees from
second-hand smoke. But that's just the beginning.

Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Today I am signing an executive
order that takes the next step and bans smoking in all federal
facilities under the control of our administration. A year from
today, every federal agency and office building, every visitors
center at every national park, every facility owned or leased by
the executive branch must be smoke-free.

Now, this order does allow agencies to designate smoking areas
for their employees who smoke, as long as these areas are ventilated
to the outside and non-smoking employees do not have to enter them.
Our federal workers and the thousands of people who visit federal
facilities will now be protected from the risk of second-hand smoke.

This fall, I hope we'll begin an important national debate on
additional measures we can enact to reduce smoking, especially by
children. I applaud the state Attorney's General and public health
advocates for providing us an extraordinary opportunity to engage in
this debate and to build on the progress we've already made. I'm
particularly pleased their plan includes a proposal, based on a bill
by Representative Henry Waxman, to protect all Americans from
second-hand smoke. And I look forward to working together in the
months ahead to meet this challenge.

Americans who have made the choice not to use tobacco products
should not be put at risk by those who choose to smoke. With this
step we're taking today, millions of Americans will be able to
breathe just a little easier.